Work Life Balance

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the phrase  “Work Life Balance” in the past few years!   The explanation being that there needed to be equal time spent on life and on work.   I believe that this most likely stemmed from a generation of people that watched their parents immerse themselves in their jobs and not spend equal, or very little, time with their families.  Almost as if work mattered more than time spent relaxing.

Do Work & Life Need To Be Mutually Exclusive?

I don’t believe that WORK and LIFE need to be mutually exclusive,  when you think about it work is just another area of your life.   Most of us spend a good  ⅓ of our waking hours working, so maybe our perspective on this needs to change.

What if those parents actually LIKED their jobs?   What if they really enjoyed the time they spent at work, interacting with the people there, learning new things, creating, solving problems!

Wouldn’t that also be considered time well spent?  Wouldn’t that be an important part of our life?

Just like any other area of your life, relationships, health or finances, work can contribute to feeling happy, confident, fulfilled, energized, proud and excited.  Maybe work is not the problem, you were most likely excited when you started the job you are in, maybe you just need to take a look at what you enjoy about it.  Are you learning things?  Are you helping people?  What made you want to be there in the first place?   Has it changed?  Have you changed?

If your work doesn’t provide you with any of these things,  you may want to reassess what you are doing and make some changes!  After all, work is a part of your life and you are the one in control of making changes where needed.

I think Work Life Balance is really all about the amount of happiness we can find in our lives, isn’t that the true balance?

~ Carol